Matt Rhule expresses support for Pat Fitzgerald, analyzes Northwestern's resolve

Despite his ouster over the summer for hazing within the Northwestern football program, Pat Fitzgerald is still held in high regard by his coaching peer in Lincoln, Nebraska. And Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule explained this week ahead of a matchup with Northwestern why he thinks so highly of Fitzgerald.

Rhule explained that he’s basing his judgement only on what he knows about Fitzgerald and that he’s too removed from the hazing scandal. He also added that Fitzgerald’s son remaining on the team was telling to him.

“Well, as I said, Pat Fitzgerald is a friend of mine. Pat Fitzgerald is someone that I’d let my son go play for. I can’t speak to anything that happened there. Just in terms of me knowing him as a man, I respect him. And his son is on the team, son stayed there. So I just think at the end of the day, Coach Braun’s done an amazing job. When you have a coach that’s really regarded and you have that kind of chaos right before the season — nowadays the minute your coach leaves, the portal window opens. And maybe they had 1, 2, 3, maybe they had 4, you guys know that better than me — but the team didn’t all just leave. And I think that speaks a lot to them,” Rhule said.

And though Northwestern is not exactly a fearsome foe relative to some of the other teams Nebraska will face, Rhule thinks it will be a real challenge.

He was highly complimentary of interim head coach David Braun and the Wildcats team. And he noted their upset win over Minnesota as reflection of how dangerous Northwestern can be.

“But they’re playing for each other. And they got off to a tough start, maybe — I think the first game, they lost. They came back, they battled back. But you see them and Minnesota and you see the way, I mean they were down 31-10 with 12 minutes left and they come all the way. And how do you do that? And they did it. So, I don’t know coach Braun but it’s just really impressive what he’s done, what that staff’s done, what those players have done,” Rhule said.

And Rhule said Northwestern is just an outright difficult team to play against and beat.

They’re playing for each other and they’re a really good football team. That’s the big thing. It’s not like it’s like — they’re a really good football team. You gotta go defend [A.J.] Henning. You gotta go defend Cam Porter. They’ve got guys who can play. And they’re tough and physical and they play rugged on defense. They’re an excellent third down offense. They stay on the field. So it’s a good football team that’s playing for the right reasons and playing for each other and a team that has purpose and will die for a cause is really hard to beat,” Rhule said.